A master's thesis and its author's enthusiasm to generate change are the origin of The Blue Box, thestart-up from Catalonia that has taken the prize in the Health category of this first edition of the FAR Awards, organized by the newspaper ARA. The company, co-founded by biomedical engineer Judith Giró, inventor of the biomedical device that gives it its name and which aspires to replace mammograms as a breast cancer screening method, is on its way to becoming a revolution.

Despite the advances, lung cancer remains the deadliest cancer in the world. Now Catalonia is taking another step to improve its prevention. Starting in 2027, the Department of Health will offer lung cancer screenings to people over 60 who have smoked at least one pack a day for thirty years. Later on, the measure will be extended to other population groups that could benefit from early diagnosis.

Life expectancy in Catalonia is very high: the most updated data (2024) place it at 86.6 years for women and 81.6 for men. But the demographic and social reality is complex. There are more chronic diseases and situations of dependency and frailty, more mental health problems and more socioeconomic inequalities, which is why the years lived in good health drop to 67 for women and 68 for men. In other words: Catalan women live 19 years of their lives with low or poor quality of life, and Catalan men 13. "The challenge now is not to live more years, but with more health, well-being and autonomy. This is the great change we are proposing," stated the Minister of Health, Olga Pané, during the presentation of the tenth Health Plan of Catalonia.

María José Correa was 12 years old when she began vomiting large amounts of blood. "They were clots the size of a hand," she describes. She had never experienced any serious health problems and her family was scared. Doctors in her native Vitoria identified that she was suffering from a digestive hemorrhage caused by a clot in the portal vein, which is responsible for transporting blood from the intestine and spleen to the liver. The girl had to be urgently transferred to the Vall d'Hebron Hospital, where she underwent a pioneering, minimally invasive operation that was a complete success. In fact, by the next day she was already able to lead a completely normal life and today she has no sequelae or complications.

In the fifties, Japan was the scene of an industrial pollution catastrophe. A factory belonging to the company Chisso [now JNC] dumped wastewater containing methylmercury into the sea, a highly toxic compound that accumulated in the fish and seafood that the population then consumed. In 1956, Minamata disease was identified, which caused irreversible neurological damage. In some cases, those affected were babies, because their mothers had been exposed during pregnancy. Among them was Tomoko Uemura, who died at 21 and became the symbol of this tragedy. Seven decades later, and in different parts of the world, this poison for living beings continues to exist and now a study published in Science warns that it hides risks for ecosystems and human health: the climate crisis could favor the mobilization of mercury accumulated over centuries.

The data does not allow us to state that Catalonia has fully entered an epidemic of respiratory viruses, but it does show that cases are on the rise at a fairly high rate. The Information System for the Surveillance of Infections in Catalonia (Sivic) confirms that in the last week with updated information (from September 21 to 27) there were 44,000 affected people across the country, predominantly by rhinovirus. This represents a 26% increase compared to the previous week. "At the clinic, we are seeing an increase in cases, but the truth is that we are still at minimum levels of transmission. In adults, cold viruses are basically circulating," explains Jordi Mestres, a family doctor at the CAP Sanllehy in Barcelona and a member of the Catalan Society of Family and Community Medicine (Camfic).

Catalonia has been free of endemic terrestrial rabies for some time, but in recent years there has been growing concern about the airborne transmission of this disease. To the point that the Department of Health has issued a call to the population to avoid contact with bats. It does so as a preventive measure because attacks by these animals—which are currently the main carriers of this disease—are on the rise.

New step in the fight against cancer. An international team of researchers led by the Brain Metastasis Group of the National Cancer Research Center (CNIO) of Spain has discovered a previously unknown phase of metastasis development that could be key to fighting brain cancer even before the first symptoms appear. According to the research, published in the journal Cancer Cell, before reaching the brain, these cells go through a stage in which they are especially vulnerable and could be effectively eliminated if attacked with the appropriate drugs.

"Until recently, Catalonia had 27 methods for collecting medical data". With this figure, the president of the Biological Sciences Section of the Institute for Catalan Studies (IEC), Jaume Reventós, has attempted to show one of the risks we face when using artificial intelligence (AI) in current and future medicine. He did so in a debate organized by the IEC itself and ARA, in which the president of the Science and Technology Section of the IEC, Alícia Casals, also participated, and which was moderated by the head of the Society section of ARA, Gemma Garrido Granger.

Health problems derived from intensive screen exposure are no longer a future threat for the youngest: they are a reality. The consequences vary according to the life stage, but the combination of risks over the years can favor the appearance of pathologies, some irreversible, among children and adolescents. From 0 to 6 years old, the inadequate use of technologies can cause them to start speaking later, develop myopia, or have motor difficulties. Between 7 and 11 years old, it can worsen sleep, favor overweight and the appearance of cavities, and affect academic performance. And from 12 to 18 years old, it can increase emotional distress, distort self-image, and increase vulnerability to patterns of violence and harassment, inside and outside of social networks.

In our daily life there are elements that, without knowing it, may be making us slowly ill. Some we are getting to know better, such as the microplastics that sneak into the food we have on our table, but others are more invisible and we find it difficult to identify them.

A new scandal in the Madrid healthcare system, stifled by years of cuts and privatizations, has once again exposed the shortcomings of the public system in the State capital. Managers of one of the city's major hospitals, the Ramón y Cajal, ordered last year to downgrade the severity of some sixty patients awaiting surgery to improve the status of waiting lists, according to internal documents to which El País has had access . According to the information, two heads of the center made changes to the priority of the operations without assessing the affected patients or consulting the surgeons who had determined the severity of the cases.

“We have run out of the estradiol we need so much to function daily and nothing is being done,” lamented Pino Bethencourt recently on LinkedIn. This coach explained, with fear and also rage, some of the effects she could suffer if she did not obtain the hormonal treatment she had been prescribed to treat the numerous and debilitating symptoms she was suffering linked to menopause.

If there is a secret to aging well, it seems likely that Valentí Fuster knows something about it. At 83 years old, this global reference in cardiology is participating in one of the Generation+ meetings organized by Caixabank to talk about the challenges of longevity in the economy and health. He does so with a lucidity unusual for someone who was on a plane traveling from the United States just three hours ago. The audience, of course, wants to know the recipe of a man capable of still balancing the role of director of the Cardiovascular Institute at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York with the direction of the National Center for Cardiovascular Research (CNIC) in Madrid.

The Spanish Agency for Food Safety and Nutrition (AESAN) will review its latest report on diet and healthy habits during menopause after several scientists denounced that it offered recommendations based on studies conducted exclusively on men. The agency has acknowledged that the document, published last April, did not warn of this limitation and has commissioned its scientific committee to review the text. The case, reported by Eldiario.es, once again brings to the fore a persistent problem in biomedical research: the lack of specific evidence on women's health and the historical tendency to take the male body as a reference and extrapolate the results to the general population, even on specific issues such as menopause.

Swimming in the sea is one of the blessings of summer. The act of slowing down, being outdoors, and cooling off is an anti-stress balm that alleviates the headaches accumulated throughout the year. Although the sea offers us multiple virtues, not all those attributed to it can be taken for granted. Regarding seawater specifically, messages are spread, especially through social networks, such as that drinking it "remineralizes," "balances electrolytes," "alkalizes the body," or even "hydrates better," but the fact is that scientific evidence does not support claims like these and, on the other hand, the risks of drinking it are well identified.The idea that drinking seawater is beneficial spread over a century ago with the French biologist René Quinton, who maintained that seawater resembles blood plasma because life originated in the sea and that it contains the chemical elements the body needs. Based on this hypothesis, Quinton developed the so-called "marine therapy." In recent times, with the popularization of social networks, the attribution of benefits to the intake of seawater – even untreated – has spread even further, but one must carefully consider who is saying it and what exactly they are saying to avoid falling into pseudoscientific practices.

In my previous article there were ideas left in the drawer because there wasn't enough space to address them. My intention was to propose practical solutions because having plans is essential for moving forward. Let's continue.The annual increase in the cost of public healthcare is 5-6%, while the Generalitat's overall spending grows by 3%. The population is aging and requires more attention. Healthcare professionals have increased their professional level. New technologies derived from bio sciences –more specific– are more effective, but also more expensive. The efficiency of the Catalan health system is due, in part, to the low salaries of medical staff, who, however, treat patients with a professionalism and care not found in any other member state of the European Union.Universal public healthcare is an asset that generates well-being and social cohesion, and that preserves the essence of the service that its creators wanted and achieved. The first universal health system was created in Prussia in 1880 by Bismarck, a visionary conservative who feared the decomposition of the Reich by socialism and the proletarian masses, at that time strong and organized due to the industrial revolution. To avoid this, Bismarck adopted, for health, socialist principles. The system was based on funding from contributions paid by employers and workers as part of their wages.In 1941, Churchill asked William Beveridge to plan a universal health system for after the war, to be financed through taxes. When Labour won the elections in 1945, Prime Minister Clement Attlee implemented the system that Churchill had imagined. It was a success, a pioneer in Europe. The Spanish system is based on this structure.Catalan healthcare was an invention of Convergència. The party intended to strengthen and consolidate a society that had emerged from the dictatorship with “scars”, but also with the will to create a society for the new political environment where it was “Catalan whoever lives and works in Catalonia”. Health became an autonomous competence. Trias planned it, Ribó's left supported it and the government's work was completed... Today we have the result.Time passes, and the precious asset we have today —few will argue that the Catalan health system is not excellent— requires increasing funds to maintain the current quality level. It also needs a reform of the system to make it more efficient and reduce spending without affecting services. The problem with our health system is its cost, and reforms must be aimed at containing it. The system has an attribute that makes it unique: the combination of the staff's professionalism with a public-private mix – private entities, such as La Caixa, and public ones, such as universities, hospitals, and research centers, which maintain quality and innovation as their hallmarks –. Everyone wants to be treated by the public health system in case of serious illness.

It's barely been three months since she arrived in Barcelona and Mónica Bettencourt-Dias (Lisbon, 1972) is already fumbling with Catalan. She has a private tutor and has enrolled her daughters in a summer camp to immerse them in the language. All this shows the intentions of this cellular biologist, who confesses herself to be in love with the city and its culture, and who has just taken over as director of the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona. She is the first woman to head this flagship of biomedical research in Europe, and will lead nearly 500 scientists from 47 different nationalities.

In the summer, when coastal waters warm up, the presence of a bacterium that can cause serious infections in humans increases. It is Vibrio vulnificus, a microorganism that naturally lives in marine and brackish waters in different parts of the world. The U.S. state of Louisiana has reported nine cases of infection this 2026, five of which have resulted in the death of those affected. All cases have required hospitalization, and authorities have linked them to the exposure of wounds to seawater. During the previous ten years, the state had reported an average of about seven cases and one death annually.

Putting on a swimsuit to go to the beach, taking a trip to the mountains… The summer plans we look forward to all year round are not equally easy for everyone. “These weeks the world stops in a kind of truce where most people disconnect, but we can't,” says Elisenda Martínez from Barcelona. It’s not easy to go to the beach after a mastectomy, to see your scars or to take photos without hair; it’s not easy to accept that the getaway you have planned will leave you “worn out” or that you’ll have to schedule your holidays around medical appointments and various treatments. “In the summer, cancer doesn’t go away,” laments Martínez, who, even though it’s harder now, doesn’t stop going to the festivals she used to attend before her diagnosis or enjoying the summer with friends and family.